Journalists held, questioned in Crimea, mainland Ukraine

New
York, May 19, 2014--Ukrainian authorities are holding two foreign journalists,
while five other journalists were interrogated in Crimea by Russian authorities
over the weekend, according to news reports.

On
Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, detained Russian
journalist Oleg Sidyakin and cameraman Marat Saychenko, both with the
pro-Kremlin news portal Life News, during
a raid on armed separatists, news reports said. Sidyakin and
Saychenko were accused of aiding armed separatists, who were also detained in
the raid. The soldiers later handed the journalists over to the SBU, the
Ukrainian national security service, in Kiev, where they are being
interrogated, Valentin Nalivaychenko, head of SBU, said, according to news reports.

"Ukrainian
authorities should release Oleg Sidyakin and cameraman Marat Saychenko
immediately," said Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program researcher.
"We call on all sides in the conflict in Ukraine to respect journalists' status
as civilians and allow them to report freely."

Also
over the weekend, at least five journalists were detained and interrogated for up to six hours in Simferopol,
Crimea, where they were covering or preparing to cover mass rallies organized
by the Crimean Tatar minority commemorating the 70th anniversary of
the forced deportation of Crimean Tatars from the region. Authorities recently
banned protests, saying they would spread tension, news reports said.

On
Sunday, agents with Russia's Investigative Committee interrogated Cengiz Kizgin,
Turkish reporter for the Crimean broadcaster Otkritiy Krymskiy Kanal, and his
Ukrainian colleague, Osman Pashayev, after they were detained by a local militia
supportive of Russia's annexation of Crimea, the Simferopol-based Center for
Investigative Journalism reported. The
journalists were questioned without a lawyer present, and their equipment and footage
were seized. The center said that Pashayev was
summoned and interrogated today by agents with the Investigative Committee. After
he was released, Pashayev left Crimea to file a complaint with Ukrainian
prosecutors, news reports said.

On
Saturday, Waclaw Radziwinowicz, a journalist with the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza; Nikolai Semenoi, a journalist
with the Ukrainian newspaper Den; and
photojournalist Lenyara Abibulayeva, were detained for six hours during which they were interrogated by the Russian
security service, FSB, according to reports.